Iowa Realty Manager: Warm Winter Friendly to Marion Home Sales

regional manager J.D. Schlotterback discusses the local real estate market.

How is Marion’s real estate market fairing?

The Marion market continues to be a pretty good market when it comes to single family homes and condos. The average price is $150,000 for a single family home. The new construction is a big part of the growth, as new construction continues to be pretty high in Marion.  

Where is Marion seeing this growth?

The north and the east side of Marion that’s where a lot of construction and commercial activity is going right now.  

How does Marion compare with Cedar Rapids or greater Linn County in terms of growth?

Marion continues to grow at a little bit of a faster pace than Cedar Rapids. But the schools are a strong selling point in both cities. Overall, we are seeing growth in this year and last year in the Cedar Rapids area.

What’s the greatest selling point for Marion?

In Marion there are very good schools, so it is the same thing in Cedar Rapids. I think these new home buyers are a group of people that want to move to town for a higher quality of living for their families.

Are there any economic factors that are helping sell houses?

In the beginning this year the weather has been awful nice and the interest rate staying at historic lows have got people interested. We’ve seen people’s confidence in their job stability grow and we have seen a trend of much more people with open houses.

What they are seeing now is an interest rate at just an unbelievable rate. I think the lack of confidence is what we saw two years ago where interest rates were low, but they weren’t buying because they (lacked job security), now they are looking at these low rates and seeing them as an opportunity.

Really? Good weather helps sell homes?

I think the big thing is if buyers can drive around and don’t have to move in the ice and snow they are more likely to look at homes. We always see this trend. Now that it’s daylight savings time and there’s better weather people are more apt to walk around and look for properties. They are finding homes on their drive home from work because there’s daylight and they aren’t concerned about snow.